Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Last night I got a bad craving for chocolate. Although K. kindly offered to whip up and bake some chocolate souffle for me, I declined, as I remembered the number of dirty dishes in the kitchen after his last attempt. Instead I went to my del.icio.us bookmarks and printed out Food Migration's recipe for molten chocolate cake. I gave the recipe to K., together with Nigella's recipe for molten chocolate babycakes and asked him to choose between the two. He went for the first one, as the idea of using 350 grams of chocolate for 6 small cakes (as requested by Nigella's recipe) seemed a bit excessive on a weekday night.

Only then did we realise that we don't have any bitter chocolate left in the house, so we used Manjari 64% Madagascar Plantation ("Rich, dark chocolate with a raspberry finish") from Edinburgh-based Coco Chocolate instead (yet another chocolateyfarewell present I had got back in October). As you can see from the picture below, we left the cake in the oven for a minute too long, so it's not as molten as it should be. But we will be trying this recipe again soon, with a darker chocolate. And then, on one beautiful day, we'll try Nigella's chocoholic's dream, too..

Butter and sugar (or maybe sprinkle with cocoa instead, as per David's suggestions?) the insides of six small ramekins or pudding molds. Place on baking tray.Melt chocolate and butter in a small saucepan.Beat eggs and sugar together. Add the melted chocolate and butter mixture. Continue to beat for another five minutes.Add flour, beat for two more minutes.Pour mixture into prepared ramekins.Bake in a 180 C oven approximately 8-10 minutes - NO MORE.Dust with powdered sugar and serve warm. A good and slightly melted vanilla ice cream is a good accompaniment.

6 comments:

Pille - I, too, have used this recipe and blogged on it. I have a particular friend for whom I must make this almost every time I visit him and his wife. I, too, have left it a minute longer in the oven before, but at least it doesn't ruin the chololateness! Though you said you would try the recipe again with a darker chocolate, how did the chocolate you used taste in this recipe? Was the raspberry quite noticeable? I love your blog, by the way.

Pille - I left a response to your message re: my molten cakes on my blog but thought to contact you here in the event you do not find your way back to my blog for a while. I wholeheartedly recommend the Nigella recipe; it works every time if you keep an eye on the clock. The chocolate babycake is moist and rich and lives up to expectations. I have thought of playing with this recipe - perhaps a Mexican twist next time with cocoa and chillis, or a Syrian twist with pomegranate molasses and almonds?

Shaun - thanks!! Both of your suggested twists - Mexican and Syrian - sound wonderful! And I'll surely try Nigella's version soon, too. Re: the Manjari 64% - it gave a nice chocolate flavour, but we both felt that a darker choc would probably be even nicer. And re: the raspberry finish - couldn't really taste it. Oh well...

Mae - you're welcome!

Susan - I've bookmarked few other molten chocolate cake recipes, but this was the first one we tried. We'll hopefully be going through the list soon..